11/4/2023 0 Comments Means of production marxDepending on variety, most citrus trees bloom in spring to set fruit that are ready to harvest in fall and winter. Some orange cultivars only have small, blunt thorns at the base of the leaves.Ĭlusters of fragrant white flowers are produced at the ends of the stems. Lemons and limes generally have sharp thorns, although thornless cultivars are available – but they supposedly have less flavor and are not as productive. Thorns evolved for protection from herbivores, especially of the young foliage which is most delicate, so many types only have thorns as juveniles but outgrow them as the tree matures. There are some cultivars with variegated foliage.Ĭitrus leaves (L) often have a flange on the petiole (LC) and may be dark or light green (RC) or variegated (R).Ĭitrus often has thorns at the nodes, especially on new grafts and fruiting wood these can be cut off if desired (if the thorns are on shoots that originate from the rootstock, below the graft union, the entire shoot should be removed). On many types of citrus the leaf has a small flange along the petiole. These trees have ovoid to elongate, glossy, dark green leaves. Many types of citrus can grow more than 20 feet tall in the ground but dwarf types can be kept at 3-5 feet tall in containers. By the early part of the citrus had spread to Arizona and California, where they became an important commercial crops. By 1518 the orange reached Mexico, and Spanish settlers brought citrus to Florida in about 1565. From Europe citrus spread to the New World, with seeds brought to Haiti on Columbus’ second voyage in 1493. The mandarin was first brought to England in 1805, and spread from there to Malta, Sicily and Italy. By the 16th century, sweet oranges were a well-established commercial crop in southern Europe. The Crusades introduced feudal Europeans to lemons, lime and sour oranges, and citrus soon became the fashion of the nobility and rich merchants. Orange trees are still grown in southern California. Many of these citrus groves were lost when the empire disintegrated, and the next wave of introductions came with the rise of Islam and the Arab empire, with citron, sour orange, lemon and pummelo found in North Africa and Spain by 1,150 AD. During the heyday of the Roman Empire, new varieties of fruit trees came flooding into Europe from all over the world, including probably (in order) sour oranges, lemons and sweet oranges. Citrus eventually spread all around the world as a consequence of travel, exploration, war, and politics. For a long time the only citrus in Europe was the citron which was brought to Calabria, Italy by the Jews around AD 70 and is still grown there. Citron, sanctified in India, was dispersed to the Near East, becoming an important part of Jewish culture. Citrus accompanied travelers along the Silk Road, migrating to the Middle East and, eventually, Europe. The first Chinese references date to perhaps 776 BC, although they may actually refer to conditions well before that time. The oldest known reference to citrus is in the Vajasaneyi Sanihita, a collection of devotional texts written in Sanskrit prior to 800 BC. Citrus is very promiscuous and will cross-pollinate with any other kind of citrus fruit – today’s lemons, limes, grapefruits, and oranges are natural or artificial hybrids of these species – and in combination with a possible polyphyletic origin, there is still considerable confusion on the classification of these fruit trees. maxima, a grapefruit-like fruit) from Malaysia and papeda (a sub-genus of Citrus) native to tropical Asia. ![]() Most cultivated citrus seems to be descended from four core ancestral species: citron, Citrus medica, from Northern India mandarin, C. Most citrus is descended from four ancestral species.
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